Message to Kay - He Gently Calls Us

A couple of us noticed you lovely blog is now by invitation only. If you are accepting requests to join, Joan and I would love to be invited. Please let us know. Thanks. You can email me privately at pick39(at)yahoo(dot)com.

The Beautiful Hands of a Priest

We need them in life's early morning,
We need them again at its close;
We feel their warm clasp of true friendship,
We seek them when tasting life's woes.

At the altar each day we behold them,
And the hands of a king on his throne
Are not equal to them in their greatness;
Their dignity stands all alone;

And when we are tempted and wander,
To pathways of shame and of sin,
It's the hand of a priest that will absolve us--
Not once, but again and again.

And when we are taking life's partner,
Other hands may prepare us a feast,
But the hand that will bless and unite us--
Is the beautiful hand of a priest.

God bless them and keep them all holy,
For the Host which their fingers caress;
When can a poor sinner do better,
Than to ask Him to guide thee and bless?

When the hour of death comes upon us,
May our courage and strength be increased,
By seeing raised over us in blessing--
The beautiful hands of a priest.

This came off of an old prayer card, anonymous author.

Source: EWTN

Shared by Half the Kingdom

A Mother's Prayer for Her Son to Become a Priest

This is a prayer that I pray nightly.

O God, grant that my son my become a priest!
I myself want to live as a good Christian
and want to guide my child always to do what is right,
so that I may receive the grace,
O God, to be allowed to give you a holy priest!
Amen.

(Mothers' prayer from Lu, Italy) Prayer Source

Prayer for Vocations

Picture source Diocese of Austin

Prayer for Vocations

GOD OUR FATHER, Who wills that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of Your Truth, we beg you to send laborers into Your harvest, and grant them grace to speak Your Word with all boldness; so that Your Word may spread and be glorified, and all nations may know You, The only God, and Him Whom You have sent, JESUS CHRIST YOUR SON, OUR LORD.
Amen.

Shared by Sue

Vocation Awareness Week

Diocese of Honolulu Prayer for Vocations
Prayer for Vocations

Heavenly Father,
your divine Son taught us
to pray to the Lord of the harvest
to send laborers into His vineyard.

We earnestly beg you
to bless our Diocese and our world
with many priests and religious
who will love you fervently and gladly
and courageously spend their lives
in service to your Son's Church,
especially the poor and the needy.

Bless our families and our children,
and choose from our homes those who you desire for this holy work.

Teach them to respond generously
and keep them ever faithful
in following your Son Jesus Christ,
that under the guidance of the Holy
Spirit
and with the inspiration of
Blessed Damien and Blessed Marianne
the Good News of redemption
may be brought to all.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Diocese of Honolulu Office of Vocations

Why Believe?

I received the following in an email from Cindy S.

Remember in December JoEllen Murphy, whose response to a humanist who-needs-God? ad campaign on Washington DC's Metro buses was to raise money to give voice to those of us who're not ashamed to say we do?

She raised the money! They're here!

But it gets even better! JoEllen writes:

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

We did it! We raised $14,000! From the bottom of my heart, I want to thank all of you for your donations, your prayers, your encouragement, interest, and support. Your enthusiasm for the project enabled us to reach the goal in only two weeks and two days!

We have purchased the ads, and due to a delay, the interior ads, which were scheduled to begin the 15th, will now start December 22, along with the taillight ads. We have enough money to run these ads for five weeks instead of four. This means that the ads will run through January 25th, and thus be up through the Inauguration and March for Life! The ads for the sides of the buses have also been purchased and will run December 29th - January 25.

Read the rest - and buy bumper stickers if you like - at I Believe Too.

Novena to Fight FOCA

Clarification re: U.S. Bishops’ pro-life office corrects ‘misleading’ FOCA novena message

FOCA which I received in an email today 1/12/09:

Freedom of Choice Act is set to be signed January 21-22. This information is somewhat misleading and may cause people to think that Fight-FOCA postcard campaign is not necessary.

Thank you for forwarding this message to me. While the Freedom o! f Choice Act (FOCA) is a very real threat (it is the most radical abortion legislation ever to be introduced in Congress), it is almost logistically impossible for Congress to pass it and send it on to President-elect Obama in the time frame mentioned in this message.

First, Congress has just gone back into session, and has not set an agenda for consideration of the bill - no testimony has been given, no votes have been scheduled. Also, if the bill were to pass before Inauguration Day, President Bush would most certainly veto it.

While I do not know the author of the original message, and I do not know where they obtained their information, I believe they may have been confused the possibility of President-elect Obama signing some "executive orders" that would overturn current pro-life policies. This is a real possibility, and could happen in the time mentioned. However, at this point, our contacts in Washington have not been able to determine further details on this.

Of course, prayer and fasting is definitely our most effective weapon, and I wholeheartedly support that part of the message, and hope that many people will participate in that effort.
Mary M. Boyert, Pro-Life Director
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
mboyert@archatl. com

Please sign the Fight FOCA postcards that should be distributed in your churches this weekend.

I received the following email from my friend Becca:

If you are opposed to abortion then there is bad news on the horizon.
For those of you who do not know, the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) is
set to be signed if Congress passes it on January 21-22 of 2009. The
FOCA is the next sick chapter in the book of abortion. If made a law
then all limitations on abortion will be lifted which will result in
the following:

1) All hospitals, including Catholic hospitals will be required to perform abortions upon request. If this happens Bishops vow to close down all Catholic hospitals,
more than 30% of all hospitals in the United States.

2) Partial birth abortions would be legal and have no limitations.

3) All U.S. tax payers would be funding abortions.

4) Parental notification will no longer be required.

5) The number of abortions will increase by a minimum of 100,000 annually.

Perhaps most importantly the government will now have control in the issue of abortion. This could result in a future amendment that would force women by law to have abortions in certain situations (rape, down syndrome babies, etc.) and could even regulate how many children women are allowed to have.

Needless to say this information is disturbing, but sadly true. As Catholics, as Christians, as anyone who is against the needless killing of innocent children, we must stand as one. We must stop this horrific act before it becomes a law.

The Plan:

To say a novena (9 days of prayer) along with fasting starting on January 11th. For Catholics, the prayer of choice will be the rosary with intentions to stop the FOCA. For non Catholics I encourage you to pray your strongest prayers with the same intentions, also for nine consecutive days. The hope is that this will branch and
blossom as to become a global effort with maximum impact. We have very
little time so we all must act fast. Just do three things:

1) Pass this letter to 5 or more people

2) Do it in three days or less

3) Start the novena on January 11th and pray for nine consecutive days.

(Please also fast for at least two days during the novena)

Remember that with God all things are possible and the power of prayer is undeniable. If you are against the senseless killing of defenseless children then the time is now to do something about it!

Learn more about FOCA and to sign the petition against at Fight FOCA

Prayer Request for Fr. Joe Whalen

In God's Country - Prayer Request for Father Joe Whalen

Please pray the following Novena to St. Raphael (for nine days) for a successful surgery and speedy recovery for Fr. Joe and his back surgery. The Novena will start Monday January 12, and end on January 20. (surgery Jan 21) Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts, and may Almighty God continue to bless you abundantly. The St. Raphael Ministry

NOVENA TO SAINT RAPHAEL (The Novena Prayer to Saint Raphael must be said for nine consecutive days.)

Glorious Archangel Saint Raphael, great prince of the heavenly court, you are illustrious for your gifts of wisdom and grace. You are a guide of those who journey by land or sea or air, consoler of the afflicted, and refuge of sinners. I beg you, assist us in all our needs and in all the sufferings of this life, as once you helped the young Tobias on his travels. Because you are the medicine of God, I humbly pray you to heal the many infirmities of our souls and the ills that afflict our body. I especially ask of you the favour:

We ask you to intercede for a successful surgery and a speedy recovery for Fr. Joseph Whalen, we ask that you guide and bless Dr. Weaver's hands and may the Precious Blood of Jesus heal and protect God's humble servant Fr. Joe. and the great grace of purity to prepare us to be the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

St. Raphael, of the glorious seven Archangels who stand before the throne of Almighty God, who lives and reigns forever, Angel of health, the Lord has filled your hand with balm from heaven to soothe and cure our pains. We beg you to heal and cure Fr. Joe according to the Will of the Father in the In the Holy Name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

St. Therese's Novena

I completed a novena to St. Therese yesterday. I have not received any shower of roses or even one rose for that matter. However, I have received or read three emails/blog posts about St. Therese and her photo. In fact, even one of my brothers in law who has a big devotion to St. Therese (or as my sister says, a big connection) emailed me today, something he rarely does.

So, does that mean she will be answering my prayers? I believe so...

The Baptism of the Lord

Sts. Peter and Paul, Honolulu
Photo by Joey